Strict all-girl boarding school in 1955 Massachusetts is the setting for thoughtful, gentle, if familiar tale of two senior dorm roommates (one tall and lovely, the other a flat-chested hoyden) obsessed with boys and "doing it" for the first time. From "Blue Denim" in the 1950s to "Love With the Proper Stranger" in the '60s and "Racing With The Moon" in the '80s, it seems every generation gets a movie like this one (usually set in the nostalgic past) wherein sexual proclivities are often seen as life deterrents. Pamela Sue Martin doesn't have the range of a studied actress, yet her dryly engaged manner and mature, offhand observations (mostly cynical) make her an appealing screen presence. Betsy Slade, on the other hand, does seem studied, but this doesn't work for her wallflower character (she's too world-weary, too ready to fall apart to really become embraceable). The film's '50s milieu is extremely well-judged, from the all-important 'mixer' dance to the best mid-priced hotel, from the authentic cabs and cars to the desolate building of the nearest abortionist. Does the movie pack any more of a punch than your average TV drama covering this same territory? Probably not, but it has a resonance that stays with one, even if the plot functions and characters have been utilized before, after, and since. **1/2 from ****
10 Reviews
A Time Not That Long Ago...
JLRMovieReviews13 May 2020
Pamela Sue Martin and Parker Stevenson are the leads in this story that takes place at a 1955 girls' school, but Betsy Slade steals the show as her search for love takes a very dramatic turn. It was somewhat painful to watch, as she learned and had to endure the repercussions forced on her. Pamela and Parker are good in their roles, but virtually are given very little to do. I would watch this again and would recommend this to all who happen to find it. It will definitely leave an impression on you, depicting an innocent time that grew up too fast.
The silent 50s
bkoganbing11 March 2020
This portrait of the uptight and silent 50s is a well done drama of two upper class
teen girls, Pamela Sue Martin and ?Betsy Slade and what happens after their
first romantic encounters.
That first time can set a pattern, but back in the 50s sex was not something discussed in polite company. Not in the prep schools that Edith Atwater runs for girls Nor in the one for boys that Parker Stevenson, Michael Gray, and George O'Hanlon, Jr.
This is a picture of the stark world before Roe vs. Wade became law and what we could go back to if the radical religious right has it's way.
In the supporting cast look for Robert Walden as your friendly abortionist who for a good fee will break the law and relieve a woman of her pregnancy. He will really creep you out.
This film of the 50s from the 70s is quite relevant for today.
That first time can set a pattern, but back in the 50s sex was not something discussed in polite company. Not in the prep schools that Edith Atwater runs for girls Nor in the one for boys that Parker Stevenson, Michael Gray, and George O'Hanlon, Jr.
This is a picture of the stark world before Roe vs. Wade became law and what we could go back to if the radical religious right has it's way.
In the supporting cast look for Robert Walden as your friendly abortionist who for a good fee will break the law and relieve a woman of her pregnancy. He will really creep you out.
This film of the 50s from the 70s is quite relevant for today.
Predictable, but interesting drama.
it_teach206 July 2000
This film about the coming of age of two girls who attend a boarding school is a little predictable at times, but interesting to watch. The film takes place in the 1950's with Pamela Sue Martin a beautiful debutante type, and Betsy Slade a quirky girl who is insecure. The whole plot pretty much involves wanting to lose virginity, boys, and an unwanted pregnancy. Worth watching, a little predictable though.
I was embarrassed when I watched this movie.
eddieochs29 January 2007
I was with my family (5 kids 2 parents) one Saturday night in 1974 and we decided to go to a movie, we had one theater in town showing one movie. "Our Time" was playing and I believe it had a PG rating so my parents thought it would be OK. We watched a little over half the movie I think, but the sex scenes, although implied were a little too much for my parents. They yanked us all out of there quickly and then my parents demanded their money back from the counter girl. She refused so my mom grabbed her by her braids and pulled her to the counter, my dad threatened to break the glass counter unless they got their money back. My face was hot from blushing! Mom and dad got their money back. The next day at school some kids I knew saw us get dragged out of the movie and ribbed me a bit. I actually liked what I saw of the movie but I will never forget the scene my parents made.
Good alternative to waterboarding
laurelhardy-1226812 March 2020
Warning: Spoilers
When I was 20, my girlfriend at the time, and I made the mistake of going to the movies to see this picture.
Just recently, it came up on TCM, and I decided to record it to show parts of it to my wife. What possessed me at the age of 66, to punish myself again; I'll never know.
First, the entire movie is filmed in (as I dubbed it in 1974), Noxzema-vision. The filters are appropriate however because this is such a muddy mess of a movie.
The gist of this depressing train wreck, follows the exploits of Muffy, an inward virgin attending a girls prep school who loses her virginity to an unwilling bespectacled nerd. After that 5 seconds was thankfully over, Muffy of course turns up pregnant. With the help of the nerd & girlfriend, she gets a backstreet abortion. Dr. Hackenbush gives her a DNC, (which is appropriate since this entire movie was a uteral scraping). It goes wrong and the coat-hanger wielding wannabe Doc gives Muff some pain pills to cover it up. Next, Muffy's muff is hemorrhaging and she dies; (although after witnessing the act that led to her pregnancy, it would've been reasonable to conclude that she had died sometime earlier).
I'm not sure if the writers and producers were trying to produce an anti pre-marital sex or antiabortion movie. It doesn't matter. This joyless flick is so depressing it makes Sophie's Choice look like a musical.
Gave it 3 stars because it does (unfortunately), hold one's attention.
Bob R.
Just recently, it came up on TCM, and I decided to record it to show parts of it to my wife. What possessed me at the age of 66, to punish myself again; I'll never know.
First, the entire movie is filmed in (as I dubbed it in 1974), Noxzema-vision. The filters are appropriate however because this is such a muddy mess of a movie.
The gist of this depressing train wreck, follows the exploits of Muffy, an inward virgin attending a girls prep school who loses her virginity to an unwilling bespectacled nerd. After that 5 seconds was thankfully over, Muffy of course turns up pregnant. With the help of the nerd & girlfriend, she gets a backstreet abortion. Dr. Hackenbush gives her a DNC, (which is appropriate since this entire movie was a uteral scraping). It goes wrong and the coat-hanger wielding wannabe Doc gives Muff some pain pills to cover it up. Next, Muffy's muff is hemorrhaging and she dies; (although after witnessing the act that led to her pregnancy, it would've been reasonable to conclude that she had died sometime earlier).
I'm not sure if the writers and producers were trying to produce an anti pre-marital sex or antiabortion movie. It doesn't matter. This joyless flick is so depressing it makes Sophie's Choice look like a musical.
Gave it 3 stars because it does (unfortunately), hold one's attention.
Bob R.
A favorable review, and trivia
inash11 February 1999
Warning: Spoilers
"Our Time" is set against a backdrop of 1950s boarding schools, and like other films of that sort, it has a "coming of age" theme. What makes it unique is its details: the coming of age in this case is the horror of pregnancy in a pre-Roe v. Wade era. Well-made, well-acted and very absorbing, "Our Time" is a cautionary tale for anyone who thinks abortion should be illegal. (Warning: it does not have a happy ending.)
An interesting side-note is that three of the principal actors were reunited just 3 years later; Pamela Sue Martin, Parker Stevenson and George O'Hanlon, Jr., all were regulars in the "Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew Mysteries" TV series.
An interesting side-note is that three of the principal actors were reunited just 3 years later; Pamela Sue Martin, Parker Stevenson and George O'Hanlon, Jr., all were regulars in the "Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew Mysteries" TV series.
Some people call this the good old days
zapkvrsc12 April 2022
It was supposed to be scarey in the 70s like Reefer madness in the 50s. Its a very bad movie. Amazing that the US is heading back there except the religious right think they have a monopoly on decency. When Roe v Wade gets overturned dont come whining to me.
A good period piece about women's choice in the 1950's
fb74758 June 2022
Warning: Spoilers
The movie is about a girl's boarding school in the 1950's. Some of the acting is a little wooden and the story is a little slow. However, the message is so important that I have looked past those faults. There are many movies like this, about teenage romance, but they do not carry the seriousness of the consequences of unprotected sex. Muffy and Abby are roommates, Abby has a boyfriend at another school Michael, and his friend Malcolm likes Muffy. She does not reciprocate and is in love with another boy Buzzy. At a Christmas party Muffy invites Buzzy and he comes but already has a girlfriend. In her grief Muffy turns to Malcolm for sex. Both Abby and Muffy have unprotected sex with Michael and Malcolm respectfully, but Muffy gets pregnant. Remember, this is the 50's, so Muffy wants an abortion, but it is illegal. Michael finds someone who can perform it off the radar and Malcolm pays for it. Muffy undergoes the procedure in a back room student doctor's office. Sadly, she suffers from internal hemorrhaging and dies in the hospital. It has a profound affect on Abby. In this day and age, with the ongoing debate about abortion in America, this is probably a movie all school kids should see. I give this a high rating because of the message.
Raw, but appropriate acting and, sadly, still timely.
Lian23 June 2022
Warning: Spoilers
It's interesting on viewing this movie, how raw the 4 'teens' leading this movie are. After years seeing the smooth talking/acting plethora of Movies and TV shows with the young/teen casts of the last 3 decades, it is almost jarring to see a set of teen characters, who actually sound like either the teens you were, or actually overhear in real life.
Chatty, scatty, ignorant yet pompously covering that up, they veer between talking over one another in rapid verbal torrents one moment and then long awkward, nervous pauses. They feel utterly unpolished, and, as it goes on, all the more real because of it.
Betsy Slade (Muffy) and Pamela Sue Martin (Abby) make convincing and touching good friends (and given that Pamela Sue Martin asserts that Betsy didn't actually like her, you have to give extra kudos to the actors), and while it's a familiar tale of the Pretty and the Plain, the close friendship between the two really adds to what happens. It's also nice to see a story where the handsome All American Captain of the team (Parker Stevenson) actually turns out to be a genuinely nice guy who both loves his girlfriend and is supportive of her friend too. Ditto the lovelorn Malcolm, who pines after Muffy but abides by her decisions, both not to marry him and to abort the pregnancy.
Ultimately though, set in the stultifying, double standard filled, moral trap of hypocrisy that was the 50s, it remains a cautionary tale of what happens when sex is shunted into the shadows, both turning it into a dirty little secret *and* increasing curiosity around it; and when a woman can't freely and safely make choices about what happens to her own body. The latter, sadly, rearing it's head again in U. S. society, making the movie all too relevant almost 50 years later.
Chatty, scatty, ignorant yet pompously covering that up, they veer between talking over one another in rapid verbal torrents one moment and then long awkward, nervous pauses. They feel utterly unpolished, and, as it goes on, all the more real because of it.
Betsy Slade (Muffy) and Pamela Sue Martin (Abby) make convincing and touching good friends (and given that Pamela Sue Martin asserts that Betsy didn't actually like her, you have to give extra kudos to the actors), and while it's a familiar tale of the Pretty and the Plain, the close friendship between the two really adds to what happens. It's also nice to see a story where the handsome All American Captain of the team (Parker Stevenson) actually turns out to be a genuinely nice guy who both loves his girlfriend and is supportive of her friend too. Ditto the lovelorn Malcolm, who pines after Muffy but abides by her decisions, both not to marry him and to abort the pregnancy.
Ultimately though, set in the stultifying, double standard filled, moral trap of hypocrisy that was the 50s, it remains a cautionary tale of what happens when sex is shunted into the shadows, both turning it into a dirty little secret *and* increasing curiosity around it; and when a woman can't freely and safely make choices about what happens to her own body. The latter, sadly, rearing it's head again in U. S. society, making the movie all too relevant almost 50 years later.
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